Dr. Gonzo

Tbh I think it's only common sense if a condition to the suspended sentence is he goes and gets into some kind of therapy treatment for gambling addiction. He's already serving a ban for gambling and he went ahead and... gambled again. I think he's very lucky to not be banned again. I understand addiction is tricky, but I'm not sure we'd see the same sort of leniency if it was a drugs issue he was struggling with and testing positive for cocaine multiple times a season... and drugs don't put the integrity of the sport into question.

You're right though, Ozil and Sanchez at the time were massive signings. Ozil was one of the top 5 most expensive transfers that year - granted Gareth Bale's massive fee to Real Madrid probably made the fee look small though. Wenger was brilliant though with his scouting, he's also a pioneer of bringing modern sports science and nutrition to English football, and his tactics for the most part were excellent - he built strong and entertaining sides before being stuck in constant transition during that stadium loan financing edition. I actually thought it was a bit sad how Arsenal fans got pretty hostile with him in the end - although clearly it had gotten stale. All the managers you've listed in the original post are all legends imo. I think if you put any of them in charge of a good side, they'll probably win stuff with it. But if they all had to build squads on £100m in 2023, I think there'd be a bit of struggling all around to build a side that's truly competitive.

I mean if you account for inflation, is that actually true? Either way I think the right answer is one of those 2.

The seasons where Klopp’s spent the most he’s also had to sell to get money in, while trying to compete with clubs that don’t really have to worry about money. That’s a bit like Arsenal while more money was tied up in the stadium loans. Adjust Wenger’s prices for inflation and Arsenal aren’t the biggest spenders, but also weren’t small spenders. Ozil for example in 2013 (so before Neymar to PSG really brought prices of players to truly fucking mental levels), it was around the end of Wenger’s era - when they were in that constantly rebuilding phase. And that was £40m - within the top 5 most expensive signings made that season. I’m not saying either manager never spent a lot of money - they both clearly did. But they also sometimes had to work with financial constraints that I don’t think other managers could have done and gotten the same performance. So for that reason, if you’re picking a manager to do a job with a decent amount of money but not an absolutely obscene amount of money… out of the choices listed, I think it’s Wenger or Klopp.

By the same token the US pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University have been disgusting for their rhetoric and violence, the pro-Israel protestors that attacked the pro-Palestinian protestors at UCLA last night are also disgusting. Honestly, this sort of selective outrage for this conflict is infuriating to me. Oppression and conflict elsewhere in the world is routinely ignored... unless it's Israel-Palestine, in which case the world seems like it tears apart at the seems trying to lend support to one side or the other. I can't understand why so many people feel the need to take sides in such an ugly conflict.

Yeah either by remortgaging or with a HELOC like @Viva la FCB mentioned. I've never done either though.

Doing it early and doing whatever you're capable of doing yourself, so you don't have to pay someone, are good ways to save money while doing necessary maintenance on a house. I've learned so much shit working on my house fixing things that have gone wrong and the one time I couldn't figure out how to fix what I needed done, I was very fucking annoyed when I saw the bill.

It wasn't really a couple of years after getting Ferdinand though... it was something like 11 or 2 years after that signing they signed Ozil. Manchester United spent a lot of money because they were good and winning things in the era where money started pouring into football, driving it to the mess it is today. Arsenal did increase their spending, but much of that was because they were in direct competition with United and had to spend to keep up. And both of them had Chelsea to worry about and Chelsea were spending money in a way that we hadn't really seen in football other than when Real Madrid went crazy with the galacticos project. I know some of these managers cross over between different eras of football... but the money in English football from '92 onwards just exponentially explode out of control. And it really depends on the context of the question as to who you'd want as a manager with £100m. If you're talking about starting a side from basically scratch, making up an XI out of £100m... all of these managers would probably fail lol. If you're talking about one of them taking over an existing side and giving them £100m... I think Klopp and/or Wenger are the standouts with Ferguson for me as a maaaaaaybe. And for Mourinho and Pep... nah, they'll struggle with "just" £100m unless we're talking about a club that's already competitive and with a very strong academy because they're the definition of chequebook managers.

Yeah, I did say that he built them into a financial behemoth and that his sides were not cheaply assembled - despite the fees not looking quite as insane as they do now (although I remember the Ferdinand one felt particularly insane at the time, and probably only feels less insane because now £30m doesn't seem that expensive for a football player because we live in a silly era). But that's why I did say "I'd go with Klopp or Wenger" - even though it's not like the Liverpool and Arsenal sides they managed were skint, they didn't have the same financial backing as their main competitors for silverware.

I think he was the manager of the Barca B team or the academy or something like that first.

26 26

Yeah

Young doesn't play the ball and yeah they're supposed to stop with the nicknames, but remembering that probably requires minimal competence so no surprise they've forgotten.

Didn't Bill Maher call Ice Cube the n word once and then acted like it was fine for him to do that for some reason? Probably not the best spokesperson for criticism of hate speech lol, even if I do think there's a decent chunk of these pro-Palestine protests that is legitimately antisemitic.

If it's £100m in today's money - I'd go with Klopp or Wenger. Ferguson didn't spend the insane amounts of money that fly around in today's era of football and he deserves a lot of credit for being the United manager and bringing them success in an era when money started flowing into football. But his best sides were not cheaply assembled sides by the standards of the day. But honestly given that he was the one that built United into a financial behemoth with his football, he could probably do a good job as well. Not Pep or Mourinho for me, though. Chequebook managers that I can't see reaching the heights they want to reach without spending loads of money - other than instances where they inherit a dominant team at the same time as having a bunch of brilliant players coming through the academy (like Pep). They're obviously good managers, but they're the sorts of managers you want with an unlimited budget... not with financial constraints that in today's football is not all that much of a warchest to truly change a side.

Think it depends on how the housing market's doing really. Things like demand for houses, inventory of houses available, how long a house has been on the market would all be factors into "how low can I go with my offer." Also just generally, putting in an offer that's too low can pretty easily be seen as insulting and that can just turn a seller off from wanting to negotiate further. But also generally speaking, probably somewhere around 3-5% off the asking price.

I think they were destined to come back up. They were pretty easily the best of the 3 that went down last season, and imo they only went down because they persisted for Rodgers for too long after he’d lost the plot. But congrats to @Stan & @Dan

He didn’t feign injury until the ref comes over and talks to him. PMGOL should release the audio, but I doubt they will.

No lol he was fine and even looked confused when Taylor told him to get down and called the physios onto the pitch. Bizarre and unjustifiable, so another day with PMGOL refs really.

SAF’s going away present was the next 10 years

It’s annoying but tbh I’m used to being extremely disappointed lol

He shouldn't even be talking about a title race. He should just say "we shouldn't be thinking about that, we should be thinking about getting 3 points from the next match." He, like many of the players, really just seems to have run out of fucks to give about this season. Wanted a glorious end to an era, when it was always unrealistic, and once that started looking unlikely they just gave up on everything.

I honestly don't know where we're going to pick up any more wins for the rest of the season. If Spurs win the rest of their games, they could end up ahead of us too. Our collapse has been shocking and embarrassing tbh. Not too long ago the future looked bright when we had some of our big players out and we were punching above our weight - now I think there's a lot of question marks about our big players and how big of a job Slot's first season really will be.

Anthony Taylor's an absolute gimp btw.